Look! DEA Pushes To Increase Cannabis Growth

In news you wouldn’t expect to hear every day, today the word comes down that the DEA is pushing to increase cannabis growth. Each year, the DEA sets production quotas for more than 250 Schedule 1 and 2 controlled substances, which reflects “the total amount of controlled substances necessary to meet the country’s medical, scientific, research, industrial, and export needs for the year and for the establishment and maintenance of reserve stocks.” In a filing to be published soon, the DEA has set a quota of about 5,400 pounds of cannabis production in 2019 for U.S. research, more than five times over the approximately 1,000 pounds of cannabis authorized for 2018. All cannabis used in authorized research programs must be produced at a farm at the University of Mississippi, though researchers have said it is too difficult to obtain the cannabis, which is often of low quality.

With the DEA ramping up quotas for marijuana, the news also comes down that they are reducing the quota for the production of opioid medications in the U.S. next year. This comes under a federal plan to cut nationwide opioid prescriptions by one-third in three years. Justin Strekal, the political director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, spoke about the DEA increase in cannabis cultivation. He stated: “While the drastic increase in requested production of marijuana by the DEA is a positive sign, significant barriers still exist including but not limited to the NIDA monopoly on cultivation and undue hurdles for researchers to qualify for a permit.”

He also added that “It’s time that Congress look at the 28,000 plus peer-reviewed studies currently hosted on the National Institute of Health’s online database and reform federal law by removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act altogether.” Give us your thoughts on the news below and stay tuned for much more on this coming very soon.